During Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Francis Pope stressed that faith is joy and hope in Christ. Rules and casuistry are "an abstract world" without joy, faith, love, nor God.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – One can "be a believer without joy and there is no joy when there is no faith, when there is no hope, when there is no law, but only rules and cold doctrine." By contrast, "the joy of faith, the joy of the Gospel is the touchstone of a person’s faith,” Pope Francis said today in his homily during the Mass in Domus Sanctae Marthae, inspired by today's Gospel, "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad" (cfr. Jn, 8: 56).

This is “what these doctors of the law did not understand,” he said. “They did not understand the joy of promise; they did not understand the joy of hope; they did not understand the joy of the alliance. They did not understand! They did not know how to rejoice, because they had lost the sense of joy that only comes from faith. Our father Abraham was able to rejoice because he had faith; he was justified in the faith. The others had lost faith. They were doctors of the law, but without faith! What is more: they had lost the law! Because the centre of the law is love, love for God and one’s neighbour."

Such doctors of the law had only "a system of precise doctrines,” which “they explained each and every day so that no one touched them. [They were] Men without faith, without law, attached to doctrines that also become a casuistic attitude: you can pay the tax to Caesar, can you not? This woman, who has been married seven times, when she goes to Heaven will she be the bride of those seven men? This casuistry. . . This was their world, an abstract world, a world without love, a world without faith, a world without hope, a world without trust, a world without God. Hence, they could not rejoice!”

"The joy of faith, the joy of the Gospel is the touchstone of a person’s faith. Without joy, that person is not a true believer. Let us go home, but before we do that, let us celebrate with these words of Jesus: ‘Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.’ Let us ask the Lord for the grace to be rejoicing in hope, for the grace to see Jesus’ day when we shall be with Him and the grace of joy."

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